Sausage & Pepper Pasta

Pasta is one of my favorite things to eat. I love pasta. So I’m always looking for and thinking up new recipes to try. I saw a recipe online awhile back for sausages and peppers in alfredo sauce, which we don’t eat because of the dairy, but that got me to thinking – how about sausages and peppers in some kind of white sauce? So I just threw something together, and it’s been so good that it’s now in our regular rotation. Good thing I wrote it down! I figured I’d share it with all of you too, since who doesn’t like a filling pasta dish in the winter?

1 pound Italian sausage

1 sweet pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 pint of mushrooms, sliced

1 cup soy milk (or milk)

1 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon corn starch in 1/4 cup cold water to form a slurry

salt and pepper

1. Saute the peppers and mushrooms until the mushrooms are slightly browned, then set aside.

2. Brown the Italian sausages on all sides. Add the vermouth to deglaze the pan, put the lid on, and simmer on low heat to cook through.

3. While the sausages are browning, cook your pasta and make the sauce. For the sauce, combine the soy milk, chicken stock, onion powder and garlic pepper. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then whisk in the corn starch slurry, stirring constantly until thickened. Put on the lowest flame to keep warm while the sausages and pasta finish cooking.

4. When the sausage is nearly done, add the peppers and mushrooms back to the pan. If you like, slice the sausages (I always find it’s easier to slice cooked sausage than raw) and return them to the pan. Stir in the sauce and simmer for a few minutes to meld all the flavors.

5. Stir the completed sauce into the pasta, and let sit for 5-10 minutes so the flavors really lock into the pasta.

It’s so delicious – and perfect with a nice glass of your favorite white wine.

Wait! Don’t Go To Bed Just Yet!

I almost made a terrible, terrible mistake. I almost forgot to put our turkey in the fridge to defrost. If you got a frozen bird this year as well, you’ll want to be sure to get up out of bed, trot over to the kitchen and spend ten minutes rearranging your refrigerator so it fits. Especially if you plan on using a recipe that requires you to brine your turkey for 24 hours.

According to the USDA factsheet on turkey it can take 3-4 days to defrost a 12-16 pound turkey, and up to 5 days to defrost a 16-20 pounder. So that means you’ve really got to get on it! Leave it in it’s original wrappings and place it on a rimmed baking sheet on the lowest shelf.

But fear not – if you didn’t see this post in time all hope is not lost. The USDA also says it’s safe to defrost your bird in cold water – 6-8 hours for 12-16 pounds and 8-10 hours for 16-20 pounds. You could even put it to defrost on Wednesday night and be able to put it in the oven Thanksgiving morning. You’ll need to change the water every 30 minutes. You can do it in your sink, but if you’ve got to use the sink for other things (as most of us do) you can do it in a large stockpot (at least 16 quarts should work, but if you’re a canner your 21 quart canning pot would be perfect) or even a clean plastic bin or tote. One of these days I’ll get a proper food storage container to tackle these types of jobs, but until then I’ll just try to remember to defrost my turkey on time.

Make Ready – Thanksgiving is Coming!

Okay folks, it’s one week until the Big Feast. Where are you with your pre-holiday preparations? I’ve got the lists all made and ready to go. Three lists are key to getting your big dinner on the table without a hitch – the menu, the shopping list and your prep outline. Here are mine for this year – not so simple that I’ll be bored getting it together, but not so complicated (as in previous years) that I won’t be able to pull it off with a baby on the scene.

The Menu

Roasted turkey (still trying to convince husband we should also apple smoke it)

Honey glazed ham

Mashed potatoes

Bread stuffing (with white and rye breads)

Stuffed sweet potatoes

Braised greens (whatever’s on sale – Swiss chard, kale, collards…)

Home made cranberry sauce

Turkey gravy

Pumpkin crescent rolls

Pumpkin pie

Chocolate icebox pie

Shopping List

12-15 pound turkey

8-10 pound ham

5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes

celery

carrots

onions

chicken stock

4 sweet potatoes

3 large bunches greens

cranberries

flour

sugar

eggs

soymilk

mini marshmallows

Prep Itinerary

Monday – Bake white bread and rye bread for stuffing.

Tuesday – Parbake and freeze crescent rolls; make chocolate pie; make cranberry sauce.

Wednesday – Bake pumpkin pie; prep all veggies and keep in fridge.

Thanksgiving – Get turkey and ham in oven by 9:00; cook bread stuffing in crockpot; cook mashed potatoes; bake sweet potatoes; braise greens; finish baking rolls.

 

Of course the Thanksgiving work list needs expanding and refining. I like to have times listed out so I know when to start each item so that everything is ready to eat at the same time. It takes a little maneuvering. That’s why I’ve decided to sacrifice the crisp crust on the bread stuffing this year and do it in the crockpot. I can just set it and forget it. Actually, I suppose I could throw it under the broiler for a few minutes if I’m so inclined, but personally I like a softer stuffing anyhow. So we’ll see. And juggling the turkey and ham in the oven will be tricky. Another pro to apple smoking it, as it can be done on the grill. But if we go that route, I’ll have to take the turkey down into pieces so it will fit on our grill. Not a big deal, since we don’t make a big thing of presenting the whole bird at the table anyway. But if we don’t smoke it, I may have to cook the ham through on Wednesday night so I can just heat it up on Thursday when the turkey is out and resting. So, I’ve got the master plan all set to go but we’ve still got some planning to do in the next week. And we’ve got to do the grocery shopping this weekend for sure!

Summer Recipe Roundup

I just popped a pound cake in the oven, so we can have pound cake with fresh strawberries for a few breakfasts this week. And that got me to thinking of all the great, simple summer food out there. So I thought I’d share a collection of easy recipes for tasty summer treats. Enjoy!

Grandmother’s Pound Cake from Cherry Hill Cottage

Summer Nectarine Cakes from Dailydelicious

Blueberry Pancakes from Smitten Kitchen

Raspberry Icecream from The Adventures of an Epic Baker

Crawfish Boil from A Taste of Koko

Grilled Sweet Corn Salsa at Food Republik

Barbecued Chicken Kebabs from Pink Parsley

 

The Easter Menu

Easter is just around the corner, and this year it just happens to fall on my husband’s birthday! So we’re hosting a small family dinner for that Sunday afternoon. Being exhausted in general these days, I have relinquished the appetizers to my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law, so I don’t know what they’ll bring just yet but I’m sure it will be delicious.

And due to the aforementioned general exhaustion, I will only be doing one meat entree this year instead of the usual two I do for holidays. I debated for a few days between lamb and ham, and finally decided on ham. I’ve been on a bit of a pork kick these days, and it just sounds really good. I plan on getting an eight pound fresh ham from my favorite butcher in town, Paulina Meat Market. We’ll be serving seven for dinner, so that will be a generous amount of ham and we’ll likely have leftovers, which I always look forward to from holiday dinners. I’m thinking that a simple honey glaze with some studded cloves is what I’ll do for it – fresh and light is perfect for a springtime meal.

And I’m only going to do three side dishes for this one – French potato salad, roasted Brussels sprouts with a mustard sauce and either an onion or a leek and pancetta tart. And I’ll probably bake up a couple of packages of croissant rolls too.

For dessert, the husband has demanded I make my carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I’m going to bake that the day before so it has time to chill properly in the fridge. And finally I’ll be able to put my new icing knife to good use when I make it!

I’ll probably do up half a dozen colored hard boiled eggs just for fun too, to have as an appetizer/centerpiece. And I’ve got to get on making my Easter decorations so the house is in top form. All in all it’ll be a good time and I’m looking forward to hosting a big holiday meal this spring.

The Last Vestiges of Winter: Flemish Beef Stew

While it has been gloriously sunny all weekend, the sun has been deceptive. It’s bitingly cold outside, which is not condusive to outdoor pursuits. So instead of working on the garden and firing up the grill for the first time, I’m thinking soups and stews. During the colder months, I favor hearty fare like Bacon & Whiskey Chili (or my variant on that winner – Bison & Bourbon Chili) and Rustic Beef Stew but after several months of spicy or wine-based dishes, I’m a little worn out on them.

That’s when I remembered that beef also pairs really well with beer. Epicurious, as usual, turned up a great recipe for Flemish Beef Stew. My recipe below is a slight adaptation of the it.

8 slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes

1/3 cup flour, seasoned with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon pepper

1 onion, diced

2 potatoes, cubed

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 cups beef broth

1 bottle beer

1 can tomato paste

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 tablespoons light brown sugar

1. Fry bacon in a large stockpot. While the bacon is frying, dredge the beef in the seasoned flour.

2. Brown the beef with the bacon.

3. Add the onions and cook until just translucent. Add the garlic and cook for just a minute.

4. Stir in the tomato paste, and cook for a few minutes until slightly darker in color.

5. Add the broth, beer, potatoes, thyme and brown sugar. Simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Serve over egg noodles if desired.

Sunday in the Kitchen

The last three months have been pretty rough for me in terms of food and cooking. With morning sickness that lasted pretty much all day and night, I ate what I could when I could and husband did most of the cooking. He’s been a real trooper taking over the kitchen and my share of the household chores. It certainly hasn’t been an equitable division of labor, but hey – I’m growing another human being here.

But as this pregnancy progresses, I’m feeling sick less often – which is great. Because despite how greatful I am that husband stepped up, I’ve really missed spending time in my kitchen. Poring over cookbooks and and cooking are what I enjoy and how I relax. And today I finally got my chance! After an afternoon nap (which was total bliss, except for the sore neck I woke up with) I waltzed into my kitchen, did up the few dishes in the sink, wiped down the counters and began.

First up on the docket – tunnel of fudge cake. I got out my largest mixing bowl, which isn’t quite large enough for this recipe and proceeded to make a giant, floury mess all over my freshly cleaned counters. I filled up my Nordicware bundt pan with the silky chocolate batter and popped it into the oven. I’m going to have to be patient and let it cool for almost two hours when it’s done baking so the whole thing doesn’t collapse into itself as a giant pile of sludge. I’m going to do my best to wait. I’ve got a major sweet tooth lately and I’m beyond excited about this cake.

Then, onto dinner – bacon and whiskey chili. I’ve made this recipe so many times I can do it without consulting the recipe, but I got it out anyway because I had such a taste for it. It had to be executed perfectly. As such, instead of prepping as I went, I decided to prep my mise en place beforehand. I was so excited about finally cooking that I wanted to draw it out. I diced an onion and several cloves a garlic and set them out in a bowl. I diced the bacon and set it aside. I measured the chicken stock. Lined up the cans of bean and tomatoes. Pulled the bottle of whiskey down from the woefully neglected bar. And then I measured out the spices with the brown sugar and mixed them together into a bowl. Prep complete.

I put some water onto to boil for ditalini (Yes, I’m a pasta with chili kind of girl. I’m sure chiliheads everywhere hate me. Whatever.) Then I put my stockpot over a high flame to heat it up for the main event. When the bacon went in, it sizzled in that satisfying way only bacon can. Oh, joy of cooking! Once the bacon was crispy, in went the onions and garlic. Once the onions were golden and fragrant, in went the beef until well browned. And then the spices – wow, what a smell! From there, I added the tomatoes, stock, beans and a healthy shot of whiskey. I brought it up to a boil, then reduced the flame to let it simmer. The only thing I did differently with this recipe from normal was omit the shot of whiskey for the cook!

Dinner and dessert tonight are going to be so delicious… on that note, I believe I need to take the cake out of the oven to cool.

Home Made Bread Crumbs

Last night I came home to a great dinner my husband made – breaded pork chops, green beans and mashed potatoes. The house smelled so good, so I was ready to have a plate. Then my husband mentioned that we’d run out of store-bought bread crumbs. So wait, how did he make breaded pork chops then?

Home made bread crumbs of course! We usually have a loaf of bread a week in the house and we don’t always eat it all as toast or sandwiches. So on the weekends, I oven-toast it for bread stuffing mix. Waste not, want not – and I hate throwing out food. I take whatever is left from the loaf and slice into one inch pieces, then dry it in a low oven (about 200) for about a half hour on rimmed baking sheet until it’s just dry. I let the bread cubes cool to room temp and then they get stored in a closed container.

Husband remembered the dried bread cubes in the pantry when he realized didn’t have the store bought crumbs. It couldn’t be easier – put some cubes in a ziploc, smash them with a rolling pin, and they’re ready to use!

As it turns out, I like the home made crumbs a lot better than store bought – they’ve got a little texture to them (as opposed to fine bread powder that comes from a can) that really stood up to the pork chop. So next time you’ve got half a loaf of bread that’s well on it’s way to being stale, don’t throw them out! Make stuffing cubes and bread crumbs!

Winter Hibernation

I have been woefully absent from blogland recently. We had an actual blizzard this past week in Chicago, which was an experience. Husband and I both made it home on Tuesday afternoon before the worst of it hit and hunkered down through Thursday morning. We were cozy and warm indoors while the storm raged on outside. Wednesday afternoon the snow finally let up and the sun actually shone, so we took a walk out to the lake. There were drifts of snow five feet high in places, and the wind whipping along the shore was brutal. Here are some of the views from around the neighborhood -

I haven’t seen so much snow since I was a kid. It was actually kind of fun and nice, being so novel. And I don’t think the snow is going to melt for quite awhile, which is fine because most of the roads and sidewalks are clear. The city even had a ginormous front loader on our street until late last night, clearing snow into a semi trailer to be carted off somewhere. The whole experience was pretty surreal.

Interestingly enough, the obscene amount of snow didn’t make me go more stir-crazy – my cabin fever has actually abated a little bit. I’ve been pretty reclusive lately, curled up with books and a warm blanket on the couch. I haven’t really been motivated to do much of anything – no sewing (yeah, whoops), no crafting, no planting. I’m kind of in awe lately – my husband and I happily discovered a little while ago that we’re expecting our first baby! In general, I feel much more still than I thought I was capable of, so I’m going with that. Our sweet little babe is due to join us out here in the world in September and we’re very excited to welcome the newest generation of Apartment Farmer. Though we’re kind of kicking ourselves for not getting a two bedroom apartment when we moved last fall… no matter; we have enough space to make things work for the first year. So there will be lots to do to prepare for the beba’s arrival, and I’m sure I’ll be sharing a bit of that here with you all.

But I don’t intend to sit around all weekend just being pregnant. Wednesday during our snow day husband begged me to bake bread, so I did a couple of basic loaves which he’s consumed nearly single-handedly. He says I’ve figured out how to make good bread (at last!). I give a lot of credit to the River Cottage Bread Handbook as well as using bread flour instead of all-purpose. And the bread knife he got me for Christmas is seriously one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten – it just slices through the loaf like butter! Since he’s eaten the other two loaves, I’ve got to bake some more. And I’ve been thinking about focaccia too, so I might do up a pan of that, maybe with a little fresh rosemary and cracked olives.

Food in general is a bit of a tricky subject for me lately, what with the “morning” sickness (which actually means – whatever time of day, random sickness) and my growing list of food aversions, which currently includes eggs, chicken, tomato juice (after a brief, intense love affair with it), and bacon. Breakfasts have been tricky too. I had a few weeks where all I wanted was lady apples and apple juice. Then it was oatmeal, and shamefully – chocolate chip cookies (yeah, I know - not optimal nutritionally, but it was the only thing I could choke down for a few days there). Baked goods and pasta as well as most beef dishes seem to be my friend. So for breakfast, I need to expand my repertoire – I’ve been thinking of looking up a recipe for chewy molasses breakfast cookies. And pumpkin sounds good to me again, so I might do up a batch of Super Pumpkin Pumpkin Bread as mini muffins this weekend too.

And then, there’s Valentine’s Day! I need to get in high gear crafting for that – the house is looking a bit bare in the holiday decor department. I only have a Valentine’s Day Snoopy window sticky in the living room and a red-glittered “love” wood block on the bar. I’ve got three fairly simple things I’d like to put together this weekend to spruce up the apartment – paper “conversation heart” plant stakes, a paper “Be Mine” garland, and a glittered heart wall hanging – I’m going to cut three hearts out of stiff cardboard in varying sizes (small, medium, large) and mount them vertically on a length of pretty ribbon. So stay tuned for photos and basic notes on how I’ll put those together. And then there are the all-important cards. For my nieces, I’m going to make the I Love ‘Ewe’ Valentines I saw on Craft Gossip (one of my all-time favorite craft sites). They’re just too cute to pass up! I’m going to make mine on colored cardstock and maybe do stamped lettering. I also picked up a few mini Peanuts Valentine’s Sticker Tablets at Walgreens to send them – two for a dollar! The girls like ”stickys” (as they call them). And I still have to come up with an awesome design for this year’s card to husband. We plan on a low-key Valentine’s Day at home this year. We’ll be making a romantic dinner together and staying in.  

Oh, and I’ve got make up my seed starting chart this weekend, and hassle, I mean – remind – husband that he needs to get the glass inserts put into my awesome red windowsill greenhouse so it’s all ready to go. It’ll be time to get the seeds in some dirt before I know it – I also to need to make a list of new planters I’ll need to acquire or convince husband to build so I actually have a place to put all my wonderful little seedlings.

So, happy weekend to me!

Sunday Funnies

Not funny ha-ha, but funny peculiar. As it so happens, I missed this week’s MOSS Project. Insert shame here. I was actually out of town this weekend for a family wedding (which was beautiful and nice) and then when we returned home this afternoon, I realized that I hadn’t gotten around to the fabric store earlier in the week to buy the double-fold bias tape that I needed for this week’s project – the potholders. I’m not going to beat myself up about it – sometimes life happens. I’ll be back next week with the sewing kit roll.

In other news, I’m slowly coming out of my cooking rut. I had a taste for pasta for lunch today so I made a white bean and broccoli sauce with a touch of lemon and chili flakes. Sometimes its nice to have a pasta sauce that isn’t based on tomatoes. For dinner tonight, I decided a crockpot rotisserie chicken would be the way to go. I covered it in Milwaukee Iron seasoning from the Spice House and put a little lemon juice in the bottom. Crockpot chicken doesn’t call for liquid, but I thought a little touch would be a nice flavor addition to the seasoning. I guess today ended up being a lemon kind of day. I’ll make some mashed potatoes to go alongside. I’m still trying to think of what to bake for a breakfast treat – I’m thinking chocolate chip muffins would be nice.